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Immigrants  in  the  Making 

The  Italians 

By 

SARAH  G.  POMEROY 


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IMMIGRANTS  IN  THE 
MAKING 

Each,  illustrated,  i  zmo,  paper,  net  250. 


The  Bohemians 
By  Edith  Fowler  Chase. 

The  Italians 
By  Sarah  Gertrude  Pomeroy. 

The  purpose  of  this  series  is  to  give,  in 
compact  form,  the  history,  life,  and  character 
of  people  whose  worse  sides  alone  are  usually 
displayed  upon  their  arrival  in  this  country. 
Other  volumes,  on  the  Syrians,  the  people  of 
the  Balkans,  etc.,  are  in  preparation. 


(Copyright  by   Underwood   and   Underwood,   N.    Y 
LOOKING  TOWARD  THE  PROMISED   LAND. 


Immigrants  in  the  Making 

The  Italians 


A  Study  of  the  Countrymen  of  Columbus , 
Dantey  and  Michael  Angela 


By 
SARAH  GERTRUDE  POMEROY,  A.  M. 

ILLUSTRATED 


New  York       Chicago       Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 
London       and       Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1914,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


SRLF 
YRL 


oc/z\2,^jk>l6 


Contents 

I.  The  Italians  as  a  Problem      .        .  9 

II.  A  Bit  of  History       ....  13 

III.  United  Italy 23 

IV.  Enemies  of  Progress  ....  28 

V.  Italy    and    the    Eoman   Catholic 

Church 34 

VI.  Emigration 40 

VII.  The  Emigrants 45 

VIII.  Hand  in  Hand 37 


THE  ITALIANS  AS  A  PROBLEM 

OF  all  the  vast  army  of  aliens  who  daily 
pass  through  the  portals  of  our  United 
States,  no  one  nationality  deserves  more 
attention  and  study  than  does  the  Italian.  This 
is  true  first  because  of  the  numerical  problem 
which  it  presents.  The  stream  of  Italian  emigra- 
tion has  been  turning  towards  the  United  States 
with  a  steadily-increasing  current  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years.  The  percentage  of  Italian  emi- 
grants going  to  the  United  States  out  of  the  whole 
number  leaving  Italy  for  foreign  lands  has  increased 
from  12%  in  1888  to  44.4%  in  1905.  In  1906,  the 
Italians  arriving  286,314  strong,  headed  the  list  of 
immigrants  for  that  year  and  the  fact  that  274,147 
came  in  the  year  ending  June  30,  1913,  shows  that 
they  are  still  attracted  to  our  shores. 

But  the  Italians  deserve  consideration  not  merely 
because  they  present  a  numerical  problem,  but  be- 
cause there  has  been  a  tendency  to  discriminate 
against  them  on  account  of  the  illiteracy  and  low 
standards  of  living  displayed  by  a  considerable  por- 


10  THE  ITALIANS 

tion  of  the  total  number  coming  to  our  shores. 
And  last,  but  not  least,  we  owe  them  a  debt  of 
gratitude  for  giving  us  him  who  opened  the  path- 
way to  the  New  World  and  made  possible  the 
development  of  our  great  nation.  All  the  world  is 
indebted  to  Italy  but  it  has  been  truly  said,  "  The 
New  World  owes  to  Italy  the  debt  of  the  Old  and 
more.  There  must  be  a  strange  lack  of  memory 
and  of  recognition  of  service  when  prejudice  against 
Southern  Latin  origin  would  put  up  an  irrational 
bar  of  entry  in  the  face  of  the  countrymen  of 
Columbus." 

But  it  cannot  be  denied  that  these  people  help  to 
complicate  our  national  problem.  Bishop  Brent, 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  recently  de- 
clared that  "  the  United  States  is  in  far  greater 
danger  from  the  quality  of  immigration  that  comes 
from  Southern  Europe  than  from  any  peril  that 
could  come  by  Japanese  ownership  of  lands  in  Cali- 
fornia, or  from  Asiatic  immigration  as  controlled 
by  our  laws."  In  "  On  the  Trail  of  the  Immigrant," 
Professor  Steiner  says,  "  The  most  dangerous  ele- 
ment which  can  come  to  us  from  any  country  is 
that  which  comes  smarting  under  real  or  fancied 
wrongs  committed  by  those  who  should  have  been 
its  helpers  and  healers.  Such  an  element  Italy 
furnishes  in  a  remarkably  great  degree,  and  I  have 


Genoese  boy  of  the  level  brpw 


THE  ITALIANS  AS  A  PEOBLEM  11 

no  hesitation  in  saying  that  it  is  our  most  danger- 
ous element." 

"Why  do  the  Italians  come  to  America?  The 
answer  is  long  and  complicated,  but  reduced  to  its 
lowest  terms,  it  is  twofold.  First,  like  their  great 
countryman,  Columbus,  they  still  seek  the  shortest 
passage  towf^^lth:  th^v  set  sail  fronTtEeTand  of 
past  grandeur  to  the  land  of  promise,  confident 
that  on  its  shores  they  will  find  the  wealth  which 
has  been  described  to  them  in  stories  quite  as  allur- 
ing and  quite  as  fabulous  as  those  which  inspired 
the  great  explorer  to  seek  the  wealth  of  the  Indies. 
Secondly,  they  come  because  there  courses  in  their 
veins  not  only  the  blood  of  past  generations  of  ad- 
venturers and  explorers,  but  of  artists,  musicians, 
litterateurs,  which  impels  them  to  seek  for  them- 
selves opportunity  not  merely  to  maintain  existence 
but  to  develop  latent  powers. 

How  do  we  receive  them  ?  ]^ot  always,  but  all 
too  often,  in  the  spirit  voiced  by  Kobert  Haven 
Schauffler: 

"  Genoese  boy  of  the  level  brow, 
Lad  of  the  lustrous,  dreamy  eyes 
A-stare  at  Manhattan's  pinnacles  now 
In  the  first,  sweet  shock  of  a  hushed  surprise, 
"Within  your  far-rapt  seer's  eyes 
I  catch  the  glow  of  the  wild  surmise 


12  THE  ITALIANS 

That  played  on  the  Santa  Maria's  prow 
In  that  still,  gray  dawn, 
Four  centuries  gone, 

When  a  world  from  the  wave  began  to  rise. 
Oh,  it's  hard  to  foretell  what  high  emprise 
Is  the  goal  that  gleams 
When  Italy's  dreams 
Spread  wing  and  sweep  into  the  skies. 
Ctesar  dreamed  him  a  world  ruled  well ; 
Dante  dreamed  heaven  out  of  hell ; 
Angelo  brought  us  there  to  dwell. 
And  you,  are  you  of  a  different  birth  f 
You're  only  a  'dago,' — and  'scum  o'  the 
earth'  !" 

The  history  of  past  ages  answers  the  two  ques- 
tions, "  Why  do  they  come  ?  "  and  "  What  inher- 
itance do  they  Urfng?  "  But  it  is  to  the  history  of 
modern  Italy  that  we  must  turn  for  a  more  specific 
answer  to  the  question,  "  What  is  their  immediate 
inheritance  ?  " 


II 

A  BIT  OF  HISTORY 

EVERY  student  can  recall  enough  of  the 
Roman  history  of  his  school-days  to  vis- 
ualize the  early  history  of  Italy,  the  land 
which  became  a  source  of  learning  and  inspiration 
second  only  to  Greece,  from  which  it  obtained  a 
goodly  heritage.  Italy  became  the  centre  of  civili- 
zation and  under  its  fostering  care,  Christianity 
took  deep  root.  But  it  is  not  so  easy  for  most  of 
us  to  remember  the  story  of  the  long  centuries  that 
lie  between  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  Empire  in 
476,  and  the  unification  of  modern  Italy  in  1870. 
It  is  a  series  of  moving  pictures,  a  kaleidoscopic 
panorama,  a  record  of  bloody  wars. 

From  the  downfall  of  the  old  Roman  Empire 
until  the  coronation  of  Charlemagne  (800  A.  D.) 
whose  genius  for  ruling  tended  to  overcome  separa- 
tion, disorder  and  anarchy,  Italy  was  ruled  success- 
ively by  the  Visigoths,  the  Ostrogoths,  and  the 
Lombard  kings  and  Byzantine  exarchs.  But  the 
weak  successors  of  Charlemagne  were  unable  to 
carry  out  his  policies,  and  the  feudal  system,  fos- 

13 


14  THE  ITALIANS 

tered  by  both  nobles  and  clergy,  developed  rapidly 
until  962,  when  Otto  the  Great  restored  the  Holy 
Eoman  Empire  and  established  a  dynasty  that 
lasted  until  1024.  This  emperor  aimed  to  reduce 
the  number  and  power  of  the  vassal  nobles,  to 
diminish  the  papal  power  and  to  favor  the  growth 
of  cities  and  towns.  The  maritime  towns,  in  par- 
ticular, Amalfi,  Pisa,  Genoa,  and  Venice,  profited 
by  this  policy  which  prepared  the  way  for  the  so- 
called  Age  of  City  Eepublics — but  which  also  an- 
ticipated the  long  quarrel  between  the  Guelphs  and 
the  Ghibellines. 

All  Italy  became  involved  in  this  series  of  con- 
flicts between  the  papacy  and  the  empire.  At  last, 
the  Peace  of  Constance  (1183)  confirmed  the  tri- 
umph of  the  free  cities,  and  for  nearly  three  hun- 
dred years  they  flourished  to  a  greater  or  lesser 
degree,  and  influenced  national  history.  The  in- 
dividual stories  of  these  city  republics  are  most 
fascinating  and  romantic  but  their  rivalry  was 
productive  of  inevitable  discord  that  encouraged 
the  rise  of  despots,  who  flourished  from  1300  to 
1500.  This  was  a  period  of  decadence,  for  the 
warring  factions  had  deprived  the  people  of  all 
military  spirit,  and  the  country  was  not  only  at  the 
mercy  of  domestic  ambition  but  had  become  the 
battle-field  of  jealous  foreigners.     The  many  con- 


A  BIT  OF  HISTOEY  15 

quests  and  discoveries  following  the  discovery  of 
the  'Kew  World  and  the  East  India  passage  had 
diverted  commerce  from  its  old  channels  and  ended 
the  brilliant  history  of  Italian  navigation.  But 
Italy  still  maintained  supremacy  in  letters,  arts  and 
sciences,  and  harassed  though  she  was  by  political 
greed  and  rapine,  she  nevertheless  fostered  the  Re- 
naissance and  (in  the  phrase  of  Hamilton  "Wright 
Mabie) "  became  the  liberator  and  teacher  of  modern 
Europe." 

In  the  midst  of  the  general  political  corruption, 
the  House  of  Savoy  was  the  only  one  of  the  great 
families  to  maintain  itself  by  enterprises  of  valor. 
The  dukes  of  this  House  had  for  centuries  ruled 
over  the  little  domain  of  Savoy,  the  loftiest  moun- 
tain region  of  Europe,  containing  the  highest  moun- 
tain peak,  Mont  Blanc ;  in  1559,  by  the  peace  of 
Catan-Cambresis,  Piedmont  was  given  to  the  reign- 
ing duke,  Emanuel  Filibert,  whose  bravery  had 
won  him  fame.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
House  of  Savoy,  through  the  brave  deeds  of  four 
of  its  sons,  arose  with  splendor  above  the  general 
decay  about  it.  Yet  Italy  as  a  whole  continued  in 
her  decadent  state  throughout  this  century  and  the 
next,  receiving  her  first  impulse  towards  regenera- 
tion in  1792,  under  the  influence  of  the  French 
Kevolution.     Napoleon  created  new  republics  that 


16  THE  ITALIANS 

he  merged  into  the  new  kingdoms  he  created  for 
himself,  or  his  favorites,  so  that  Ital}'-  was  still 
divided  into  several  states  of  varying  size,  and  still 
under  the  control  of  the  foreigner  ;  but  the  revolu- 
tion had  inspired  a  new  intellectual  and  moral 
movement  that  was  destined  to  bring  freedom. 

Every  social  and  moral  evolution  has  its  leaders 
who  inevitably  become  popular  idols.  Italy  had 
three,  and  the  names  of  Garibaldi,  Mazzini  and 
Cavour  still  have  power  to  bring  a  responsive 
gleam  to  the  eyes  of  illiterate  peasants.  All  three 
lived  in  the  same  period  and  were  born  within 
three  years  of  each  other  (1807-1810).  They  have 
been  called  the  knight-errant,  the  prophet  and  the 
statesman  of  Italian  independence.  Mazzini  has 
been  characterized  as  being  "  at  once  the  William 
Lloyd  Garrison  and  the  Wendell  Phillips  of  the 
Italian  campaign  "  ;  Garibaldi,  "  the  Wellington  of 
Italy,"  and  Cavour,  "  the  Italian  Bismarck." 

The  year  1820  witnessed  the  first  of  the  series  of 
unsuccessful  revolutions  that  eventually  brought 
forth  the  New  Italy.  It  centred  about  the  House 
of  Savoy,  for  since  1720,  the  Dukes  of  Savoy  and 
Piedmont  had  ruled  over  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia, 
which  included  Genoa  and  Sardinia  besides  Savoy 
and  Piedmont.  It  was  in  1821  that  Victor  Em- 
manuel, then  King  of  Sardinia,  was  forced  to  abdi- 


Garibaldi 


A  BIT  OF  HISTOET  17 

cate  after  the  reactionary  measures  he  had  at- 
tempted to  introduce  had  caused  the  above-men- 
tioned revolution.  It  was  the  sight  of  some  of 
these  unfortunate  banished  revolutionists,  embark- 
ing for  exile  at  the  port  of  Genoa,  which  fired  the 
boy  Mazzini,  then  sixteen  years  old,  to  devote  him- 
self to  the  liberation  of  his  country. 

He  felt  that  in  order  to  have  a  free  country,  it 
was  necessary  to  liberate  its  literature  from  classic 
and  academic  shackles  and  make  it  a  political  in- 
strument. His  first  published  essay  was  a  treatise 
on  Dante's  love  of  country,  for  he  had  been  reared 
on  Dante  and  fiad  made  his  doctrines  his  own.  He 
established  a  liberal  paper  in  his  native  city  and 
then  conceived  the  idea  of  the  secret  political  so- 
ciety that  he  called  Young  Italy.  He  worked  out 
the  idea  while  lying  in  prison  where  he  had  been 
confined  for  his  daring  statements.  The  objects  of 
the  society  were  the  liberty,  unity  and  independ- 
ence of  Italy,  and  the  only  means  to  the  end,  as  he 
conceived  them,  were  education  and  insurrection. 

Thenceforth,  spies  and  informers  were  always  on 
his  track;  condemned  to  the  gallows  by  Charles 
Albert,  King  of  Sardinia,  because  of  his  part  in  the 
unfortunate  invasion  of  Savoy  in  1834,  and  for 
uniting  with  Garibaldi  in  plotting  the  insurrection 
of  Genoa,  he  was  forced  to  flee  from  Italy.     His 


18  THE  ITALIANS 

influence  was  felt  in  other  European  countries  where 
parties  similar  to  the  Young  Italian  party  arose,  and 
from  London,  where  he  found  refuge,  he  instigated 
many  unsuccessful  insurrections.  But  "the  mod- 
erate Guelph  school  of  politicians  turned  to  their 
own  advantage  the  agitation  created  in  Italy  by 
Mazzini  and  his  followers,"  and  thus  the  successful 
revolution  of  1848,  conducted  by  the  very  King  of 
Sardinia  who  had  earlier  condemned  him  to  the 
gallows,  may  be  said  to  have  been  in  a  great  meas- 
ure the  result  of  his  activity.  His  character  has 
.been  epitomized  as  that  of  a  " prophet,  a  dreamer 
md  a  visionary  who  was  so  intensely  democratic 
IS  to  be  really  unfair  to  the  autocratic  land- 
rowners." 

The  elder  line  of  the  House  of  Savoy  failed  in 
1831  and  a  new  era  dawned  with  the  accession  of 
Charles  Albert,  the  first  of  the  younger  line.  He 
immediately  developed  the  material  resources  of 
his  little  kingdom  and  granted  his  people  a  free 
constitution,  as  soon  as  he  had  brought  them  to  a 
state  of  prosperity.  All  Central  Italy  rose  against 
the  Austrian  power,  under  his  leadership,  and  al- 
though he  was  thoroughly  defeated  and  peace  was 
secured  only  after  great  pecuniary  sacrifice,  he 
struck  the  first  real  blow  for  Italy's  freedom.  But 
it  was  his  son,  Victor  Emmanuel  II,  to  whom  he 


A  BIT  OF  HISTOEY  19 

resigned  his  crown  on  the  night  of  his  overwhelm- 
ing defeat  in  battle,  who  became  the  real  leader  in 
the  war  for  independence. 

The  young  king,  though  distrusted  and  unpopular 
at  first,  gained  the  loyalty  of  his  subjects  by  con- 
tinuing the  constitutional  government  established 
by  his  father  in  1848,  and  by  favoring  a  free  press 
and  considerable  religious  liberty.  It  was  through 
this  freedom  of  the  press  that  Count  Cavour,  whose 
radical  opinions  in  earlier  years  had  displeased 
Charles  Albert,  first  came  into  power.  His  growth 
in  political  influence  was  rapid  and  certain  and  he 
became  premier  in  1852.  Nine  years  later,  on 
March  17,  1861,  Victor  Emmanuel,  King  of  Sar- 
dinia, assumed  the  title  of  King  of  Italy,  for  instead 
of  acclaiming  four  foreign  banners,  the  people  now 
followed  one  flag.  The  boldness  and  determination 
of  the  king  were  supported  by  the  statesmanship  of 
Cavour,  which  was  nothing  short  of  marvellous 
amid  the  storm  of  internal  commotion  and  foreign 
complication.  His  foreign  policy  was  unique,  in- 
trepid and  successful,  and  he  played  a  daring  po- 
litical game  that  was  crowned  with  good  fortune. 

The  military  success  of  the  revolution  will  be  for- 
ever associated  with  Garibaldi,  who  had  become  an 
exile  after  the  unsuccessful  insurrections  of  the 
Young  Italians  in  1833-1834.     After  years  of  ab- 


20  THE  ITALIANS 

sence,  he  returned  to  take  part  in  the  wars  of  1849, 
but  his  unfortunate  experiences  then  drove  him  into 
exile  again.  This  time  he  sought  the  United  States 
and  became  intensely  interested  in  the  anti-slavery 
movement  and  its  leaders,  and  more  and  more  im- 
pressed with  the  success  of  the  nation  that  had  re- 
sulted from  the  revolt  of  the  colonists  against  Eng- 
land. He  began  to  dream  of  a  rebellion  of  peasants 
in  Italy  and  after  renewing  his  friendship  with 
Mazzini  and  other  revolutionists  by  letter,  he  re- 
turned to  his  native  land  and  commenced  quietly  to 
carry  out  his  plans. 

"  His  '  Call  to  Arms  '  is  one  of  the  striking  docu- 
ments in  military  history.     One  morning  a  placard 
I     was  found  on  the  walls  of  Italian  cities.     It  was 
/      Garibaldi's  '  Call  to  Arms.'    What  he  offered  men 
•'       was  rags  to  wear,  crusts  to  eat,  ditches  for  beds,  no 
pay,  forced  marches,  scant  rations,  and  for  medals 
sword  gashes  and  bayonet  thrusts  and  death — but 
I      with  one  accord  the  Italian  peasants  rushed  to 
I       Garibaldi.     Without  military  training,  not  a  stu- 
I         dent  of  tactics.  Garibaldi  won  victory  after  victory. 
\      Soon  Sicily  and  South  Italy  were  free  and  he 
moved  on  Naples.     Then  there  was  a  coalition  be- 
tween the  forces  of  Victor  Emmanuel,  the  leader  of 
the  royalist  army,  and  Garibaldi,  the  leader  of  the 
revolutionists.     Kings  are  proverbially  ungrateful, 


A  BIT  OF  HISTORY  21 

and  when  Victor  Emmanuel  was  safely  seated  on 
his  throne,  the  Italian  king  sent  Garibaldi,  not  to 
the  head  of  his  army  but  back  to  his  peasant's  farm. 
But  if  this  act  lessened  the  popularity  of  the  king,     | 
it  enhanced  the  fame  of  Garibaldi."  V 

King  Victor  Emmanuel  II  lived  but  seven  years 
to  carry  on  the  work  of  reorganization  and  unifica- 
tion, and  when  he  died,  universally  mourned  as 
"  The  Father  of  his  Country,"  the  task  fell  upon  his 
son,  Humbert  I.     This  king  had  the  love  of  his 
people  from  the  beginning  and  his  wife  was  par- 
ticularly popular  because  she  also  was  from  the 
famous  House  of  Savoy.     Together  they  continued 
to  win  the  love  and  loyalty  of  their  subjects  every- 
where, for,  fearless  of  contagion,  they  went  into  the 
midst  of  the  cholera  epidemic  at  Naples  and,  when- 
ever possible,  studied  conditions  of  all  kinds  at  first 
hand.     During  King   Humbert's   reign   (in   1882)1 
Italy  entered  into  the  triple  alliance  with  Germany  j 
and    Austria    that  assured   i'rienaiy  international  i 
relations  and  freedom  to  attend  to  domestic  prob-  ) 
lems. 

But  the  personal  popularity  of  the  monarch  did 
not  save  him  from  the  hand  of  an  anarchist,  by 
whom  he  perished  in  1900.  All  Italy  mourned  for 
him  and  in  even  the  smallest  villages  prayers  were 
said  for  the  repose  of  his  soul.     His  son,  Victor 


22  THE  ITALIANS 

Emmanuel  III,  who  succeeded  him,  is  personally  as 
popular  as  his  father  and  he  and  his  dearly  loved 
queen  (Helena  of  Montenegro)  are  ever  zealous  for 
the  welfare  of  their  subjects,  going  to  the  stricken 
districts  after  the  eruptions  of  Mt.  Vesuvius  and 
nursing  the  injured  and  comforting  the  dying  after 
the  earthquake  at  Messina.  And  yet  even  this  be- 
loved young  monarch  is  in  constant  danger  from 
assassination  and  has  barely  escaped  death  from  the 
hands  of  an  anarchist. 


Ill 

UNITED  ITALY 

ALTHOUGH  Italy  was  not  really  united, 
strictly  speaking,  until  September  20, 1870, 
the  Italians  date  the  establishment  of  the 
modern  nation  from  1861  when  the  King  of  Sardinia 
formally  assumed  the  title  of  King  of  Italy.  There- 
fore Italy  celebrated  in  1911  the  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary of  her  liberty,  and  a  brief  review  of  what  has 
been  accomplished  in  the  past  half  century  is  neces- 
sary for  a  thorough  understanding  of  the  genera- 
tion of  the  present  day. 

The  task  of  reorganizing,  reconstructing  and  re- 
generating Italy  has  been  stupendous.  It  has  been 
complicated  by  the  inherited  suspicion  and  jealousies 
of  ages,  the  lamentable  ignorance  of  the  great  mass 
of  the  people,  and  the  sensitiveness  and  reactionary 
attitude  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church.  In  the 
face  of  these  facts  the  wonder  is  not  that  Italy  is 
behind  some  more  prosperous  European  nations  to- 
day, but  that  she  has  risen  to  the  position  of  respect 

that  she  now  holds. 

23 


24  THE  ITALIANS 

When  the  United  States  of  America  came  into 
being,  it  was  composed  of  a  united  people,  indus- 
trious, intelligent,  educated  and  ambitious.  When 
United  Italy  shook  itself  free  from  the  despotism  of 
seven  or  more  centuries  of  foreign  rule,  it  was  com- 
posed of  a  mass  of  disunited,  discontented  people, 
many  of  whom  were  absolutely  illiterate  and  living 
in  direst  poverty.  Jealousies  between  rival  cities 
and  states  had  been  handed  down  as  a  legacy  from 
one  generation  to  another.  The  physical  character- 
istics of  the  Italian  peninsula  had  fostered  disunion, 
for  the  Apennines,  traversing  Italy  from  the  Adri- 
atic to  the  Mediterranean,  form  a  natural  barrier  be- 
tween the  north  and  south,  and  one  which  the  north- 
erners, for  the  most  part,  have  shown  little  disposi- 
tion to  overcome.  A  French  writer,  in  speaking  of 
this,  quotes  the  words  of  a  rich  Italian  merchant  of 
the  north  who  said  to  him,"  Napoleon  had  the  right 
idea,  a  kingdom  of  upper  Italy,  a  kingdom  of  lower 
Italy.  They  are  two  territories  that  cannot  have 
the  same  institutions." 

Kecognizing  this  great  fundamental  barrier  to 
union,  the  government  attempted  to  overcome  it  by 
a  cleverly  devised  military  system  which,  although 
loaded  with  disadvantages,  has  succeeded  in  a 
measure  in  fusing  the  different  national  elements. 
"  Military  service  is  compulsory  and  in  the  same 


UNITED  ITALY  25 

regiment,  in  the  same  company,  men  of  different 
provinces  meet  and  live  side  by  side  for  three  years. 
Not  only  the  soldiers  of  the  active  army  but  the 
reserves  are  grouped  on  the  same  principle.  In 
case  of  mobilization,  Sicilians  would  go  to  join  their 
regiments  in  Lombardy,  and  Piedmontese  in  Cala- 
bria." 

As  a  result  sectional  rivalries  are  no  longer  what 
they  were.  The  interior  frontiers  of  former  times 
grow  less  conspicuous  day  by  day.  But  the  work 
is  far  from  being  finished.  All  authorities  agree  on 
this  point.  Says  one :  "  If  you  question  any  one 
you  meet  as  to  his  nationality,  using  only  the  most 
general  terms  that  the  language  affords,  he  will 
say  :  '  I  am  a  Piedmontese,  a  Venetian,  a  Calabrian, 
a  Sicilian.'  He  will  not  say,  '  I  am  an  Italian.'  In 
speaking  of  marriages,  of  commerce,  or  of  politics, 
the  inhabitants  of  some  duchy  or  kingdom  of  former 
days  will  speak  of  a  neighboring  province  without 
the  fraternal  feeling." 

Education  is  the  other  great  factor  that  has  con- 
tributed to  the  unification  of  Italy,  and  the  number 
of  persons  who  are  unable  to  read  or  write  has 
gradually  decreased.  The  census  of  1871  gave  73% 
of  illiterates,  of  1881,  67%  and  of  1901,  56%— 51.8% 
for  males,  60.8%  for  females.  The  lowest  percent- 
age of  illiteracy  was  in  Northern  Italy  (in  Piedmont) 


26  THE  ITALIANS 

where  17.7%  of  the  population  above  six  years  were 
illiterate,  while  in  Calabria  (in  Southern  Italy) 
78.7%  of  the  people  were  illiterate,  the  percentage 
for  the  whole  country  being  45.5%.'  The  percent- 
age of  illiteracy  has  undoubtedly  been  decreased 
still  further  during  the  past  decade,  as  the  total 
number  of  elementary  schools  has  been  increased 
by  about  8,000  in  that  period. 

The  educational  laws  require  that  there  shall  be 
an  elementary  school  for  boys  and  girls  alike  from 
six  to  seven  years  of  age,  upon  which  attendance  is 
obligatory.  Every  commune  of  over  4,000  inhab- 
itants is  obliged  to  maintain  a  school  of  higher 
grade  and  to  provide  instruction  for  children  up  to 
twelve,  who  are  obliged  to  attend  it.  In  1910, 
there  were  about  68,000  public  and  private  schools, 
but  many  more  are  needed.  In  the  poorer  villages 
the  classes  are  grouped  in  small,  crowded  buildings, 
the  children  who  live  more  than  a  mile  and  a  quar- 
ter from  school  need  not  attend  it,  and  the  teachers 
are  very  poorly  paid.  In  recent  years  new  schools 
for  adult  illiterates  have  been  founded,  which  have 
filled  a  real  need,  and  the  government  shows  a  dis- 
position to  improve  educational  conditions. 

Poverty  seems  to  be  the  chief  cause  of  the  illit- 

^  These  are  the  latest  available  statistics,  as  given  in  the  new 
edition  of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannioa. 


UNITED  ITALY  27 

eracy,  for  the  children  are  bright  and  learn  quickly, 
and  Italian  teachers  are  not  without  initiative  and 
educational  ideals.  The  wonderful  influence  and 
popularity  of  Madame  Montessori  and  her  methods, 
which  bid  fair  to  usurp  the  authority  of  the  Ger- 
man Froebel,  is  only  one  proof  of  this  statement. 

Poverty,  too,  has  been  responsible  in  large  meas- 
ure for  the  low  standard  of  living  and  the  large 
death  rate  which  has  prevailed  in  the  past.  But 
mortality  is  decreasing,  and  the  present  physique 
and  morale  of  the  troops  show  great  improvement 
over  the  conditions  of  a  few  years  ago.  The  poor 
physique  of  the  nation  as  a  whole  has  been  attrib- 
uted largely  to  the  heavy  manual  labor  undertaken 
by  the  women  and  children  of  the  peasant  classes, 
who  form  the  mass  of  the  population. 


IV 

ENEMIES  OF  PROGRESS 

POVERTY  and  sectional  jealousy  are  easily 
seen  to  be  the  great  opponents  to  advance- 
ment in  Italy.  Time  and  the  development 
of  moral  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  rich,  in- 
dustrious and  better  educated  North  towards  the 
poor  and  illiterate  South  seems  to  be  the  only 
remedy  for  the  second  of  the  two  evils.  The  first, 
poverty,  is  more  complicated  in  origin  and  cannot 
be  so  easily  remedied,  even  in  theory. 

Says  Rene  Bazini,  author  of  "  The  Italijyuof  JCS: 
Day,"  '^  This  is  an  amazing  problem,  arid  One  wHich 
confronts  us  almost  everywhere  in  Italy.  In  pass- 
ing from  city  to  city,  making  no  stop,  asking  no 
questions,  you  cannot  help  observing  the  contrast 
between  the  soil  which  gives  or  can  give,  every- 
thing in  abundance,  and  the  peasant,  poverty 
stricken  and  unhealthy,  as  in  Lombardy,  or  driven 
to  emigrate  as  in  Calabria.  The  villages  along  the 
route  have  not  the  clean  and  cheerful  look  of  the 
French  and  Swiss ;  the  impression  of  the  pictur- 
esque— for  the  moment  dominant — fades  completely 

28 


ENEMIES  OF  PEOGEESS  29 

and  vanishes  in  the  presence  of  pity  for  human 
misery.  This  world  of  poverty  is  a  hard-working 
world.  The  people  are  not  idle.  Everywhere  and 
at  all  times,  the  same  testimony  comes  to  me  of  pa- 
tience and  endurance  in  respect  to  this  strong,  un- 
happy race  of  men.  To  answer  the  question, 
'  Whence  comes  this  extreme  poverty  ? '  we  must 
take  the  provinces  separately  and  examine  local 
conditions,  methods  of  agriculture,  division  of  land, 
climate,  hygiene  and  the  profound  differences  of 
race  and  character  to  be  found  within  the  same 
nation."  With  these  must  be  considered  a  series  of 
catastrophes  culminating  in  the  terrible  earthquake 
of  Messina,  in  1906,  that  have  added  to  the  im- 
poverishment of  the  nation. 

To  undertake  complete  investigation  of  all  these 
matters  would  be  beyond  the  limits  of  these  pages, 
but  it  is  possible  to  speak  briefly  of  two  great 
underlying  causes — excessive  taxation  and  the 
maintenance  of  the  feudal  idea. 

The  primary  cause  of  taxation  is  the  fact  that 
the  nation  is  overburdened  with  debt  and  lacks 
natural  resources.  Money  for  education,  for  do- 
mestic improvement  and  development,  must  be  ob- 
tained, and  the  only  available  method  has  seemed 
to  be  taxation.  A  large  proportion  of  the  national 
income  has  been  used  to  support  the  standing  army 


30  THE  ITALIANS 

which  the  nation,  from  its  past  experiences,  has  felt 
to  be  a  necessity  ;  the  other  large  item  of  expendi- 
ture has  been  the  interest  on  the  national  debt.  As 
a  result  of  this  taxation,  people  have  had  to  fight  for 
a  mere  livelihood,  and,  as  a  northern  Italian  farmer 
of  some  M^ealth  and  unusual  intelligence  is  quoted 
as  saying,  "  What  prosperity,  what  spirit  of  enter- 
prise, what  progress,  is  possible  in  a  country  where 
the  soil  is  taxed  33%  of  its  net  income?"  Says 
another,  "  The  state,  the  provinces,  the  towns,  do 
not  tax  but  plunder  the  soil."  It  is  universally  ac- 
knowledged that  no  civilized  nation  has  ever  been 
so  burdened  with  taxes.  "Men  were  taxed  for 
every  bullock  and  goat  that  was  slain,  taxed  for 
every  bushel  of  wheat  that  was  raised  and  for  every 
liter  of  oil  and  wine.  The  landlord  was  taxed  for 
each  electric  light,  and  on  the  basis  of  every  serv- 
ant that  assisted  his  guests,  until  the  weight  of 
taxes  crushed  the  people."  Every  traveller  in  Italy 
is  familiar  with  the  tax  on  railroad  tickets. 

Under  these  conditions  it  was  natural  that  the 
poor  and  their  leaders  should  raise  the  question  of 
how  the  lands  could  be  broken  up  and  sold  to  the 
people,  "  how  the  tax  burdens  could  be  lifted  from 
the  shoulders  of  the  poor,  who  were  least  fitted  to 
carry  them,  and  transferred  to  the  rich  landowners 
who  were  best  fitted  to  carry  them."     This  involves 


ENEMIES  OF  PEOGEESS  31 

a  new  adjustment  of  society  and  a  series  of  far- 
reaching  changes. 

The  greater  part  of  the  land  in  Italy  is  in  the 
hands  of  a  few  titled  people  and  of  the  Roman 
Church.  In  north  and  south  alike,  property  and 
privilege  belong  to  the  few.  It  is  impossible  to 
make  a  general  statement  in  regard  to  the  landed 
aristocracy  because  their  characteristics  differ  in 
different  portions  of  the  country.  The  following, 
written  by  Luigi  Villari  in  "  Italian  Life  in  Town 
and  Country,"  a  decade  ago,  seems  to  be,  in  general, 
true  to-day :  "  There  are  two  separate  types  of  aris- 
tocracy in  Italy — the  feudal  or  territorial,  and  the 
citizen  or  burgher  aristocracy.  The  former  exists 
in  Piedmont,  in  the  Argo  Romano,  in  certain  parts 
of  Tuscany,  all  over  the  south,  in  Sicily  and  in  Sar- 
dinia. The  nobility  of  citizen  origin  is  found  in  the 
towns  of  Lombardy,  Yenetia,  and  Central  Italy." 
The  Lombard  nobility  is  described  as  being  the 
most  progressive  and  the  richest  of  the  Italian 
upper  classes.  "They  are  active  and  public-spir- 
ited and  exercise  some  political  influence."  On  the 
other  hand,  the  nobles  in  Central  Italy  are  "  fairly 
shrewd  and  intelligent,  but  narrow-minded  and 
conservative,"  taking  little  interest  in  politics.  The 
landed  aristocracy  of  Piedmont  has  lost  its  feudal 
character,  and  is  assimilated  with  that  of  the  rest 


32  THE  ITALIANS 

of  Northern  Italy,  rather  than  with  Southern  Italy. 
In  the  past  they  had  considerable  political  influence. 
They  are  good  landlords  and  introduce  improve- 
ments on  their  estates.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
Tuscan  nobles,  who  treat  their  dependents  with 
kindness  and  consideration.  But  the  feudal  aristo- 
crats of  the  south  are  ignorant,  lazy,  overbearing 
and  corrupt.  They  look  upon  their  estates  merely 
as  sources  of  income,  are  absolutely  callous  to  the 
condition  of  the  peasantry  and  care  nothing  for 
improvements.  There  are  some  fine,  public-spirited 
men  among  them  but  "  as  a  class  they  show  few 
signs  of  improvement,  and  diifer  little  from  their 
fathers  in  the  old  Bourbon  days."  In  consequence 
of  this  attitude,  the  sanitary  and  domestic  condi- 
tions of  the  mass  of  the  people  are  deplorable. 

The  present  situation  in  Italy  is  something  like 
the  economic  situation  in  England,  where  the  system 
of  great  landed  estates  has  been  a  drawback  to  the 
rise  of  the  lower  classes  for  generations ;  but,  in  a 
way,  they  are  not  analogous,  for  in  England  the 
landlords  are  generally  interested  in  the  moral  and 
physical  welfai'e  of  those  dependent  upon  them. 

All  this  explains  why  socialism — not  Christian 
socialism  but  the  most  radical  type  of  the  idea  pre- 
sented by  that  much-abused  term — has  taken  such 
deep  root  in  Italy.     "The  peasant  who,  in  older 


ENEMIES  OF  PEOGEESS  33 

times,  was  not  reached  by  the  rei^ublican  propa- 
ganda of  the  Mazzinians  and  had  remained  quite 
indifferent  to  his  political  rights,  has  in  the  last 
quarter  century  become  more  and  more  interested 
in  that  which  Socialism  preaches  in  the  elemen- 
tary form  adapted  to  his  mental  condition  which 
says,  '  You  have  nothing,  they  have  everything : 
take  their  place.' "  Such  doctrines  have  led  to  out- 
breaks of  anarchy  and  the  formation  of  pernicious 
secret  societies.  The  situation  is  not  entirely  unlike 
the  situation  in  France  before  the  revolution.  And 
yet,  in  spite  of  the  popularity  and  the  propagation 
of  such  theories,  there  still  exists  a  strong  feeling 
of  personal  loyalty  between  master  and  servant,  a 
feeling  which  retains  an  almost  feudal  strength. 
While  it  remains,  the  educated,  privileged  classes 
might  work  reforms,  if  they  would. 


ITALY  AND  THE  EOMAN  CATHOLIC 
CHUKCH 

ITALY  has  had  its  share  of  the  social  and  eco- 
nomic unrest  of  recent  years.  The  number  of 
strikes  has  varied  irregularly  from  628,  in- 
volving 110,832  workmen,  in  1905,  to  1021,  in- 
volving 172,969,  in  1910.  The  government  has 
recently  taken  vigorous  steps  to  suppress  the 
Camorra,  the  most  dreaded  of  all  the  great  secret 
societies ;  and  this  is  sure  to  bring  good  results. 
There  is  still  another  element,  however,  which  com- 
plicates the  social  conditions,  and  that  is  the  power 
and  attitude  of  the  Church  of  Kome. 

In  order  to  make  clear  the  present  attitude  of 
the  church,  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  some  centuries 
in  the  history  of  Italy  and  trace  the  part  which  the 
Eoman  Catholic  Church  has  played.  From  the 
time  of  Constantino  the  Great,  who  is  said  to  have 
endowed  the  episcopal  see  of  Rome  with  large 
landed  possessions,  the  Popes  possessed  temporal 
power  over  a  large  portion  of  Central  Italy,  and 
Charlemagne  confirmed   their  right  and  donated 


THE  EOMAN  CATHOLIC  CHTJECH        35 

large  possessions  to  them.  "  Under  varying  forms 
and  with  varying  boundaries,  the  papal  state  ex- 
isted through  the  Middle  Ages  as  a  spontaneous, 
legitimate  growth,  and  its  long  possession  through 
twelve  centuries  was  no  despicable  element  in  the 
propagation  of  Christian  faith  and  culture."  It 
underwent  various  vicissitudes  and  its  adminis- 
tration, particularly  during  the  reign  of  Gregory 
XVI,  caused  great  excitement  among  the  popula- 
tion. Revolutions  that  broke  out  in  1831  and  1848 
were  only  quelled  by  the  aid  of  foreign  soldiers, 
and  they  prepared  the  way  for  the  victories  of 
Victor  Emmanuel  and  his  army,  who  defeated  the 
papal  forces  in  1860.  Then  only  Rome  and  the 
patrimony  of  St.  Peter's  were  left  to  the  Pope 
and,  ten  years  later,  these,  too,  were  incorporated 
into  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  The  government 
guaranteed  the  Pope  the  possession  of  the  Vatican 
and  Lateran  palaces,  and  the  continued  enjoyment 
of  the  honors  and  immunities  of  a  sovereign.  But 
the  Popes  have  never  recognized  the  incorporation 
of  the  papal  state,  nor  accepted  the  guarantees  by 
which  the  government  undertook  to  regulate  its 
internal  relations  with  the  papacy.  As  an  evidence 
of  this,  no  pope  since  1870  has  stepped  foot  outside 
the  Vatican  domains,  but  has  remained  a  voluntary 
prisoner  rather  than  to  appear  to  acknowledge  in 


36  THE  ITALIANS 

any  way  the  temporal  power  of  the  King  of  Italy. 
The  influence  of  Cavour  in  the  matter  of  the  papacy 
was  significant.  His  idea  was  "  a  free  church  in  a 
free  state."  He  believed  in  full  freedom  for  the 
church  in  all  spiritual  afl'airs  and  for  the  state  in 
all  civil  affairs  and  he  opposed  alike  those  who 
wanted  to  confiscate  the  estates  of  the  church  and 
those  who  hoped  to  make  the  state  a  mere  tool  in 
the  hands  of  the  church. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  still  has  spiritual 
supremacy.  According  to  the  latest  statistics 
97.12%  of  the  people  are  nominal  Roman  Catholics, 
i"  But  in  spite  of  the  churches  and  cathedrals,  Italy, 
(more  than  almost  any  other  country  in  the  world, 
may  be  said  to  be  the  land  of  no  religion."  The 
people,  especially  the  men,  have  broken  away  from 
the  ancient  church  and  few  have  found  anchorage 
elsewhere.  The  women  in  greater  numbers  cling 
to  it  with  devotion,  but  as  many  educated  Italian 
women  testify,  and  as  at  least  one  writer  declares 
boldly,  it  is  rapidly  losing  its  hold  upon  the  women 
also,  because  of  the  disposition  of  the  priesthood  to 
take  advantage  of  their  sex. 

The  spirituality  and  rarely  beautiful  personal 
character  of  the  present  Pope  is  well  known,  and 
there  are  many  pure,  noble  and  self-sacrificing  men 
connected  with  the  administration  of  the  church, 


THE  EOMAN  CATHOLIC  CHUECH   37 

but  the  majority  of  the  priesthood  in  Italy  is  de- 
generate. In  many  cases,  younger  sons  of  im- 
poverished fathers  have  adopted  the  church  as  a 
profession  solely  for  pecuniary  reasons,  and  men  of 
lovi^er  classes  have  used  it  as  a  stepping-stone  to 
raise  their  level.  Undoubtedly  a  certain  percentage 
of  them  vi^ould  leave  it  could  they  find  other 
means  of  gaining  their  livelihood.  There  are  fre- 
quent instances  of  priests  coming  in  disguise  to 
Protestant  missionaries  by  night,  declaring  their 
belief  in  the  aims  of  Protestantism  and  sympathy 
with  it,  and  seeking  guidance  in  regard  to  their 
course  if  they  should  leave  the  church.  The  finan- 
cial exactions  of  the  church  from  the  poverty- 
stricken  and  tax-burdened  people  in  order  to  keep 
up  the  splendor  of  the  empty  churches  are  excessive, 
and  this,  added  to  the  fact  that  the  superstitions 
and  ceremonials  of  the  services  have  long  ceased  to 
appeal  to  the  reason  of  the  better  educated  men, 
accounts  for  the  large  increase  of  atheism.  So  far 
back  as  fifty  years  ago,  Mazzini,  visionary  and 
dreamer  though  he  was,  saw  this  danger,  and  dur- 
ing the  last  period  of  his  revolutionary  labors,  his 
desire  to  separate  republicanism  from  socialism  and 
atheism  was  significant.  He  was  neither  Catholic 
nor  Christian,  but  took  for  the  motto  of  his  banner, 
"  God  and  the  People." 


38  THE  ITALIANS 

If  the  great  Roman  Catholic  Church,  so  wonder- 
fully organized  and  firmly  established,  could  get  the 
broader  vision,  and  reform  her  methods,  much  good 
might  be  accomplished  for  the  kingdom  of  Italy. 
Instead  of  that,  she  seems  to  take  keen  delight  in 
blocking  the  national  government  in  all  attempts  at 
progress,  even  at  the  expense  of  the  temporal  wel- 
l     fare  of  her  own  communicants.     An  illustration  of 
I    this  attitude  is  furnished  by  the  methods  which  she 
I     employed    to    ruin    the   financial  success   of    the 
I     World's  Fair  of  1911,  when  all  Italy  had  prepared 
f     for  an  unusually  large  tourist  invasion.     Early  in 
I     the  summer,  mysterious  stories  began  to  be  cir- 
I     culated  over  Europe  and  in  England  and  America 
i    about  the  dreadful  epidemic  of  cholera  which  was 
i    sweeping  over  Italy.     Tourists  by  the  thousands 
I    cancelled  steamship  passages  and  turned  back  from 
\    the     Alpine    passes.      Throughout     Switzerland, 
I    wherever  one  travelled,  he  met  frightened  travellers 
I    who  asserted  that  he  took  his  life  in  his  hands  if  he 
entered  the  infected  country.     And  yet  the  writer, 
who  was  not  to  be  deprived  of  the  fulfillment  of 
the  dream  of  a  lifetime,  found  that  the  actual  con- 
ditions were  not  dangerous,  and  that  the  cholera 
epidemic  had  not  been  much  more  serious  than  it  is 
likely  to  be  during  any  unusually  hot   summer. 
Everywhere  the  people  were  saying  openly  that  by 


THE  EOMAN  CATHOLIC  CHUECH   39 

embellishing  and  circulating  this  story  through 
underhanded  and  crafty  means,  the  church  had 
ruined  the  celebration  of  an  anniversary  which 
revived  all  her  ancient  rancor.  The  situation 
served  to  emphasize,  also,  how  much  a  large  per- 
centage of  the  population  depends  upon  the  income 
derived  from  tourists  for,  in  many  cases,  people  who 
were  generally  comparatively  prosperous  had  been 
reduced  to  real  need. 


VI 
EMIGRATION 

BUT  Italy  realizes  her  own  condition  and  in 
that  fact  lies  her  salvation.  An  overmaster- 
ing economic  movement  has  taken  posses- 
sion of  the  land.  Everything  that  has  to  do  with 
the  land  laws,  capital,  labor,  taxation  and  currency 
is  being  analyzed  and  discussed.  To-day,  Italy  is 
publishing  more  books  on  these  subjects  than  any 
other  nation.  Meanwhile,  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  the  people,  driven  to  desperation  by  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs  which  they  despair  of  seeing  bettered 
during  their  own  lifetime,  have  emigrated  in  largely 
increasing  numbers.  But  the  nation  is  acting  as 
well  as  considering,  as  recent  developments  in- 
dicate. 

"  What  class  of  Italians  emigrate  ?  "  "  Where 
do  they  go  by  preference  ?  "  "  What  contributions 
do  they  carry  with  them  and  what  elements  of 
strength  or  weakness  are  they  likely  to  incorporate 
in  the  adopting  nation  ? "  These  are  pertinent 
questions  which  should  interest  us  as  citizens  of  the 

40 


EMIGEATION  41 

country  to  which  so  large  a  percentage  of  them 
come  annually. 

Mr.  William  Dean  Howells,  writing  in  the  closing 
years  of  our  own  Civil  War,  remarked,  that  it  was 
very  difficult  to  tempt  from  home  any  of  the  home- 
keeping  Italian  race.  That  was  before  the  great 
tide  of  emigration  which  had  become  especially 
noticeable  in  1888  had  commenced.  The  earlier 
emigrants  to  lands  beyond  the  seas  went  preferably 
to  South  America,  where  the  climate  and  the  social 
environment  promised  to  be  homelike.  Sufficient 
time  has  elapsed  to  make  the  effect  of  their  presence 
in  that  portion  of  the  New  World  very  evident.  It 
is  estimated  that  over  three  million  native-born 
Italians  now  reside  in  Brazil,  Uruguay  and  the 
Argentine  Republic.  About  three-fifths  of  the 
£►,562,730  Italians  who  were  living  outside  of  Italy 
in  1910  were  in  South  America.  The  majority  of 
them  left  their  native  land  practically  penniless,  and 
they  now  represent  the  leading  element  in  the 
population  of  the  countries  in  which  they  settled. 
"  The}'^  are  not  merely  navvies  or  agricultural 
laborers ;  the  richest  merchants,  the  biggest  con- 
tractors and  stock-brokers,  the  most  successful 
barristers,  doctors,  engineers  and  other  professional 
men  are  Italians."  This  record  of  emigration  would 
seem  to  prove  the  statement  made  by  Emil  Reich  in 


42  THE  ITALIANS 

"  The  Future  of  the  Latin  Eace,"  ^  who  says, 
"  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  they  are  the  most 
gifted  nation  in  Europe.  What  characterizes  them 
above  all  is  their  initiative.  It  is  the  first  step 
which  is  hardest  to  take,  but  the  Italians  have  been 
ready  to  take  it." 

A  dispute  between  the  Argentine  Republic  and 
Italy  in  1911  resulted  in  the  temporary  suspen- 
sion of  emigration  to  that  country.  This  injured 
the  trade  and  agriculture  of  the  republic  but  en- 
hanced Italian  prestige  and  the  condition  of  Italian 
citizens  throughout  South  America.  Negotiations 
which  were  signed  in  1912  insured  peace.  Among 
the  anticipated  good  results  of  the  opening  of  the 
Panama  Canal  and  the  consequent  encouragement 
of  more  intimate  relations  between  North  and 
South  America,  the  closer  union  of  the  Italian 
citizens  in  the  two  continents  is  anticipated. 

In  recent  years  the  tide  of  emigration  has  turned 
towards  North  rather  than  South  America.  This 
is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  Italian  emigration  is 
of  two  kinds,  temporary  and  permanent;  for  the 
people  are  to-day,  as  they  were  when  Howells  wrote 
of  them,  fifty  years  ago,  essentially  a  home-loving 
people,  and  a  large  percentage  of  them  are  willing 
to  go  into  voluntary  exile  for  a  period  in  a  country 

^  The  Contemporary  Review, 


ElVIIGEATION  43 

where  labor  is  needed  at  high  wages  and  where  they 
can  save  enough  to  keep  their  families  in  comfort  for 
a  lifetime.     According  to  the  standards  of  comfort 
in  Italy,  comparatively  few  American  dollars  will 
suffice  to  place  an  Italian  peasant  in  affluence  for 
the  rest  of  his  life.     A  case  in  point  is  told  byl 
Mr.  Brandenburg  of  a  young  Italian  whom  he  met| 
in  the  steerage  returning  to  Italy  after  working  hard 
for  three  years  in  America.     Hardships  and  depriva-  ; 
tions  had  made  him  a  victim  of  the  white  scourge, 
and  he  could  hope  to  live  only  long  enough  to  be- 
hold his  native  land  again,  but  he  declared  that  it  / 
was  worth  while  because  the  $820  which  he  had/ 
saved  would  make  his  wife  and  family  compara- 
tively independent.     All  over  Italy  are  villages 
where  an  indefinable  something  in  the  very  atmos- 
phere bespeaks  the  introduction  of  American  ideals 
and  standards,  and,  upon  inquiry,  you  will  find  that 
a  returned  emigrant  dwells  among  the  villagers. 

Originally  the  Italians  went  to  near-by  countries 
where  labor  was  needed.  Most  of  the  continental 
railways  and  the  great  Alpine  tunnels  were  made 
by  their  hands.  The  northern  peasant  still  seeks 
employment  in  France  and  Switzerland,  whence  he 
can  return  easily  to  his  home  after  making  enough 
money  to  tide  him  over  a  crisis.  Those  northern 
men  who  emigrate  to  lands  beyond  the  seas,  as  a 


44  THE  ITALIANS 

rule  take  their  families  with  them.  This  is  not 
generally  true  of  the  southern  emigrant ;  he  is  more 
likely  to  go  alone,  spend  two  or  three  years  study- 
ing the  situation  and  finding  means  for  a  livelihood, 
and  then  to  return  with  money  enough  to  bring  out 
the  wife  and  the  children  and  the  old  people. 


VII 

THE  EMIGRANTS 

THE  majority  of  northern  Italians  who  come 
to  the  United  States  are  from  somewhere 
around  the  port  of  Genoa.  But  by  far 
the  larger  proportion  of  the  Italian  emigrants  who 
seek  our  shores  come  from  the  south  of  Italy,  and 
since  the  characteristic  differences  are  clearly  de- 
fined, it  is  sufficient  to  confine  an  estimate  of  the 
personality  of  the  Italian  emigrant  to  the  southern 
races.  The  percentage  of  emigration  to  the  United 
States  is  highest  in  Calabria  where,  as  has  already 
been  shown,  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  is  also  the 
highest  in  the  nation.  But  a  large  number  come 
from  the  neighboring  provinces,  from  those  still 
farther  south,  and  from  Sicily. 

Professor  Drecke  in  his  intimate  study  of  the 
race  says,  "  The  southern  Italian  possesses  great 
natural  vivacity,  impulsiveness,  loquacity,  humor, 
quick  perception  of  the  ludicrous.  He  is  enduring 
and  self-sacrificing  when  he  is  inspirited,  or  urged 

on,  but  soon  lets  go  his  hold  if  other  things  direct 

45 


46  THE  ITALIANS 

his  interest  or  attention.  He  is  amiable  and  com- 
plaisant but  lacking  in  mutual  confidence."  The 
Sicilians  are  a  mixed  race;  they  possess  external 
dignity  and  the  sentiment  of  standing  by  one 
another  rules  their  whole  lives.  Their  conduct  is 
generally  good,  but  hatred  and  impulsive  rancor 
are  characteristic.  There  are  such  differences  in 
dialect  that  a  Neapolitan  and  a  Sicilian  can  scarcely 
understand  each  other.  The  bitterest  sectional  feel- 
ing exists  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  various 
provinces  and  may  be  easily  traced  in  the  Italian 
quarter  of  any  large  American  city.  It  is  said  to 
be  particularly  strong  between  the  Calabrese  and 
the  Sicilian. 

These  people  come  from  an  agricultural  country 
but  many  of  them  are  also  familiar  with  forms  of 
home  industry — for  Italy,  though  not  a  manufac- 
turing nation,  has  encouraged  home  industries  to  a 
great  degree  and  the  line  between  the  artisan  and 
the  farm  hand  is  not  sharply  drawn.  The  great 
proportion  come  in  response  to  the  demand  for  un- 
skilled labor,  for  heavy  out-of-door  work,  or  manu- 
facturing work  of  the  crudest  kind,  which  the 
American-born  workman  disdains.  They  mass  in 
the  cities  on  the  seacoast  because  they  are  slow  to 
venture  alone  in  a  strange  community  where  they 
are  ignorant  of  the  language,  and  it  is  remarkable 


THE  EMIGEANTS  47 

how  soon  and  how  easily  they  change  habits  and 
modes  of  work  and  adapt  themselves  to  different 
conditions.  The  peasant  who  seemed  lazy  and  in- 
dolent in  his  home  village  generally  becomes 
energetic  and  thrifty  when  removed  from  the 
enervating  climate  and  from  traditional  strictures. 
All  this  was  marked  in  the  report  of  the  Industrial 
Commission  of  1901,  which  declared  that  the 
Italian  peasants  were  learning  the  making  of  cloth- 
ing very  rapidly,  that  the  elastic  character  of  the 
Italian  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Jew,  and  that  the 
future  clothing  workers  of  this  country  were  likely 
not  to  be  Jews  but  Italians — a  prophecy  which  the 
past  twelve  years  has  already  partially  fulfilled. 

Say  the  authors  of  "  The  Italian  in  America," 
"  There  is  a  larger  proportion  of  Italian  skilled 
labor  coming  to  our  country  than  is  popularly  sup- 
posed, and  more  than  is  marked  in  the  official  re- 
turns of  our  Immigration  Department.  The 
Italian  immigrant  is  now,  perforce,  content  to  per- 
form unskilled  labor  for  the  time  until  he  has 
gained  a  better  foothold  in  the  country,  but  his 
children  born  here  will  not  engage  in  it,  and 
educated  workmen  will  not  stoop  to  it.  Among 
the  Italian  laborers  on  our  streets  and  railways  are 
some  clerks  and  artisans  and  even  professional  men. 
Their  ignorance  of  the  language  constrains  them  to 


48  THE  ITALIANS 

hard  labor  until  they  are  able  to  make  their  serv- 
ices otherwise  valuable  to  American  employers.  In 
such  work  they  can  be  readily  directed  by  Italian 
foremen  and  the  average  immigrant  shrinks  from 
exposing  his  ignorance  to  any  but  his  own  country- 
men." 

It  is  possible  that  still  another  factor  in  Ameri- 
can life  keeps  these  people  in  the  unskilled  class, 
and  that  is  the  fact  that  trade-,uniuns  have  such  con- 
trol that  a  skilled  workman  not  possessing  a  mem- 
bership card  finds  it  almost  impossible  to  get  em- 
ployment in  his  own  trade.  Several  individual 
anecdotes  of  workers  in  our  large  cities  tend  to 
bear  out  this  theory.  An  editorial  in  a  leading 
Eastern  newspaper  declared,  "  Unlike  the  United 
States,  Germany  to  some  extent  bars  foreigners 
from  the  skilled  trades  that  command  a  higher 
remuneration."  Elmer  Roberts,  giving  in  Scrihner's 
Magazine  an  account  of  the  steps  by  which  Ger- 
many is  winning  admirable  industrial  supremacy, 
tells  how  the  police  keep  track  of  every  foreigner 
who  holds  a  workman's  pass,  and  quickly  discover  if 
he  is  engaged  at  skilled  labor — in  which  case,  under 
the  statutes  of  various  states,  the  employer  is 
obliged  to  discharge  him.  "  Quite  different  is  the 
case  here,"  he  adds,  "  where  in  spite  of  contract 
labor  laws  numerous  German  experts  are  brought 


THE  EMIGRANTS  49 

over  for  work  requiring  a  grade  of  skill  not  easy  to 
get  in  this  country.  In  the  case  of  Germany  this 
attitude  is  natural  and  needs  no  defense."  But  it  is 
hardly  to  be  questioned  in  the  case  of  the  immi- 
grant from  Southern  Europe  whose  competition  is 
dreaded  by  longer  established  aliens,  that  such  dis- 
crimination is  being  made,  as  a  part  of  the  race 
antagonism  already  evident  among  the  foreign 
population  of  our  cities. 

It  has  recently  been  pointed  out  that  "  there  is  a 
positive  economic  waste  in  the  transportation  back 
and  forth  of  the  fluctuating  wave  of  cheap  labor,  as 
between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  United  States." 

The  question  naturally  arises,  "  What  impres- 
sion of  America  do  they  take  back  with  them  ?  " 
So  far  as  the  Italians  are  concerned  the  question 
has  been  answered  by  Mr.  Brandenburg,  who 
speaks  of  the  false  atmosphere  which  the  temporary 
immigrant  creates  for  himself  and  his  fellows,  and 
from  which  he  emerges  only  when  he  becomes 
Americanized.  Those  who  come  over  merely  to 
acquire  a  few  hundred  dollars  feel  that  it  does  not 
make  a  great  deal  of  difference  what  they  wear  or 
do,  if  they  only  get  the  money  and  get  back.  They 
do  not  rise  above  this  state  until  they  have  been 
drawn  into  the  real  American  life  around  them 
and  have  decided  to  remain  here.     Separated  from 


50  THE  ITALIANS 

its  opportunities  for  betterment,  their  state  is  in- 
ferior to  that  of  those  at  home. 

Eight  of  the  nine  members  of  the  Congressional 
Immigration  Commission  advocated  "  the  reading 
and  writing  test  as  the  most  feasible  single  method 
for  restricting  undesirable  immigration."  Those 
opposed  to  this  test  were  declared  by  many  people 
to  be  governed  only  by  sentiment,  and  the  spirit 
was  expressed  in  the  following  jingle  which  was 
read  in  the  House  by  Congressman  Moore  of  Penn- 
sylvania : 

li  "V^Te've  dug  your  million  ditches, 

We've  built  your  endless  roads, 
We've  fetched  your  wood  and  water, 

Aud  bent  beneath  your  loads. 
We've  done  the  lowly  labor, 

Despised  by  your  own  breed — 
And  now  you  won' t  admit  us 

Because  we  cannot  read. 

"  Your  farms  are  half  deserted  ; 

Up  goes  the  price  of  bread  ; 
Your  boasted  education 

Turns  men  to  clerks  instead  ; 
We  bring  our  picks  and  shovels 

To  meet  your  greatest  need  ; 
Don't  shut  the  gates  upon  us 

Because  we  cannot  read." 

But  there  is  more  than  a  sentimental  side  to  the 
question.     One  authority  says,  "  If  I  had  the  choice 


S-fTT 


(Copyright  by  Underwood  and   Underwood,   N.    Y.) 
ITALIAN   GIRLS. 


_ 


THE  EMIGRANTS  51 

between  admitting  to  the  United  States  a  wealthy, 
educated  Eoman  nobleman  and  a  poor  Calabrese 
contract  laborer  unable  to  read  and  write,  I  should 
choose  the  laborer  every  time."  He  goes  on  to  ex- 
plain his  stand  by  saying  that  a  goodly  proportion 
of  the  Italians  of  the  better  class  emigrate  to  this 
country.  "  The  lower  class  Italians  in  this  country 
continue  to  pay  respect  and  homage  to  those  of 
their  race  who  have  been  born  to  position,  without 
regard  to  the  changed  and  democratic  conditions 
under  which  both  gentleman  and  peasant  are  now 
living.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  half  the  Italians  from 
the  better  classes  who  come  to  America  are  far 
more*un5esn^^e'than  any  of  the  lower  class  immi- 
grants, except  that  class  of  habitual  criminals  who 
are  doing  so  much  to  get  their  race  despised  by 
honest,  clean-handed  Americans.  One  of  their 
worst  influences  is  to  retard  the  assimilation  of 
their  people  by  the  great  American  body  politic, 
by  refusing  themselves  to  be  assimilated,  even  go- 
ing so  far  as  to  send  their  children  to  private 
schools  in  order  that  they  may  not  learn  English, 
and  insisting  on  wearing  clothes  of  imported  pat- 
tern and  make.  They  are  by  birth,  tradition  and 
intent  the  leaders  of  Italian  communities  in  this 
country,  and  their  prejudices  and  examples  confuse, 
if  they  do  not  entirely  divert  the  natural  social  de- 


62 


THE  ITALIANS 


velopment  of  their  humbler  countrymen  all  about 
them." 

Those  who  cannot  read  or  write  are  more  easily 
moulded  by  American  standards  and  are  less  apt  to 
be  affected  by  the  newspapers — printed  in  Italian 
and  reflecting  anything  but  the  true  American 
spirit — which  flourish  in  the  Italian  quarters  of  all 
our  large  cities.  What  impression  the  temporary 
dweller  among  us  takes  back  to  the  folks  at  home 
can  be  ascertained  in  part  by  conversation  with  the 
villagers  in  any  Italian  hamlet.  For  the  most  part, 
they  have  a  distorted,  exaggerated  view  of  the 
country,  but  one  and  all  regard  it  as  a  wonder- 
^  land,  a  land  of  promise  where  riches  may  be  found 
[in  abundance.  They  gain  this  impression  in  part 
from  the  American  tourists  whose  expenditures 
form  the  income  of  no  inconsiderable  number  of 
the  people,  and,  partly,  from  the  stories  of  returned 
emigrants.  Italians  dearly  love  their  children  and 
the  size  of  the  population  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  materially  affected  by  the  great  amount  of 
emigration.  According  to  the  provisional  returns  of 
June,  1911,  the  population  of  the  country  increased 
6.6%  during  the  previous  decade,  and  both  Naples 
and  Genoa  show  increased  population. 

The  children  soon  learn  the  great  lesson  of 
Southern  Italy  that  "  He  who  eats  must  toil."    A 


THE  EMIGEANTS  53 

story  is  told  of  an  eight-year-old  boy,  the  child  of 
a  temporary  emigrant  who  had  been  in  America 
two  years,  who  pined  to  return,  saying  that  he 
could  make  more  money  here  after  school  selling 
papers  than  he  could  working  all  day  in  the  fields 
in  Italy  where  "'  he  never  had  no  time  for  no  fun." 
Little  lads  like  this  furnish  the  incentive  for  the 
departure  of  many  an  older  emigrant. 

One  writer,  in  summing  up  the  characteristics 
shared  in  common  by  all  Italians,  includes,  "  A  de- 
light in  music,  as  much  in  rhythm  as  in  melody,  the 
passion  for  play,  including  the  game  of  chance 
called  lotto,  the  liking  for  politics  and  public  dis- 
cussion, a  great  hardness  of  body  and  connected 
with  it  a  liking,  at  least  among  the  men,  for  pass- 
ing their  lives  out-of-doors  in  the  streets."  Some  of 
these  characteristics  are  quite  evident  among  the 
Italians  in  this  country.  "  The  traditional  eminence 
of  Italy  in  art  is  maintained  in  the  choice  of  the 
late  Itahan  Director  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art  in  New  TorlFlinci  by  the  proficiency  of  the 
Italian-American  children  in  all  primary  schools  of 
drawing  and  design.  Ah*eady  the  Italians  of  Kew 
York  have  contributed  three  monuments  to  the 
city  and  the  handiwork  of  naturalized  Italians  as 
well  as  of  their  children  born  in  this  country  may 
be  seen  in  the  pictures,  statuary  and  mural  decora- 


54  THE  ITALIANS 

tions  adorning  many  fine  residences  in  America. 
The  love  of  music  is  also  universal  and  all  Italians 
have  correct  ears,  if  not  trained  voices.  In  this 
connection  an  anecdote  told  by  the  author  of  "  Four 
Months  Afoot  in  Spain "  is  significant.  In  the 
steerage  of  a  trans- Atlantic  liner,  he  met  a  young 
Italian  who  was  returning  home  after  spending 
eighteen  months  in  this  country,  during  which 
time  he  had  lived  in  the  Bronx  and  had  earned 
seven  dollars  a  week  kneading  spaghetti  dough. 
In  speaking  of  his  savings,  he  remarked  confi- 
dentially, "  I  have  spent  only  what  I  must — two 
dollars  in  the  boarding-house,  sometimes  some 
clothes,  and  in  the  winter  each  week  six  lire  to 
hearjiaruso."  The  author  remarks  "  Thirty  dol- 
lars  a  month  and  the  peerless-voiced  a  necessity  of 
life  !  I,  too,  had  been  a  frequent  '  standee '  at  the 
Metropolitan,  yet  had  as  often  charged  myself  with 
being  an  extravagant  young  rascal." 

The  Italians  hate  slavery  and  have  an  innate 
bent  for  politics.  They  appreciate  American 
progressiveness  and  the  necessity  of  American  stand- 
ards of  education  for  the  advancement  of  their 
children.  It  is  a  well  known  and  amusing  fact  that 
some  of  them  rechristen  their  children  with  Irish 
names  in  order  that  they  may  be  "  real  Ameri- 
cans."   This  is  only  one  illustration  of  the  fact  that 


THE  EMIGEANTS  55 

there  is  sympathy  between  the  two  races  which  is 
stronger  than  many  people  appreciate.  It  has  been 
recognized  by  most  social  workers.  The  essential 
good  nature  of  both,  and  the  common  religion,  are 
bonds  of  union,  and  the  Irishman  often  becomes 
the  Italian's  political  guide^   ,,, 

"  We  ought  all,  once  a  year  at  least,  mentally  to 
live  in  the  steerage,"  says  Professor  Steiner,  and  he 
has  followed  his  own  advice  not  once  but  many 
times.  Among  the  discoveries  thus  made  by  him 
and  by  others  who  have  done  this  for  the  sake  of 
service  is  that  many  unlit  and  dangerous  people  are 
constantly  slipping  through  the  barriers,  helped,  pos- 
sibly, by  the  Italian  emigration  laws  that  may  thus 
clear  the  country  of  dangerous  characters.  It  is 
also  asserted  that  many  of  the  hopeless  tragedies 
of  Ellis  Island,  where  men  and  women  are  turned 
back  at  the  very  gateway  of  the  New  "World  im- 
poverished and  discouraged  by  their  fruitless  at- 
tempt to  enter  the  land  of  promise,  could  be 
averted  if  the  various  tests  were  made  in  Italy,  and 
the  emigrant  were  aided  intelligently,  instead  of 
being  left  the  victim  of  sharpers  and  charlatans  of 
all  kinds.  Although  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  no 
nation  of  Europe  has  been  more  circumspect  in  its 
provisions  for  regulating  and  safeguarding  its 
emigration  and  colonization,  Italy  seems  to  have 


56  THE  ITALIANS 

realized  only  recently  that  it  is  to  her  interest  to 
have  the  Italians  who  go  to  the  United.  States  of 
such  character  as  shall  reflect  credit  upon  the 
nation.  Not  until  May,  1913,  did  the  Italian  gov- 
ernment, acting  upon  the  personal  suggestion  of 
King  Victor  Emmanuel,  take  steps  to  prevent  crim- 
inals, and  particularly  anarchists,  from  emigrating 
to  the  United  States.  The  Council  of  Emigration 
has  decided  to  extend  legal  assistance  to  all  Italian 
emigrants  to  America  in  order  to  ameliorate  the 
|diflB.culties  which  hitherto  have  beset  them  at  the 
[port  of  departure,  as  well  as  at  the  port  of  arrival. 


Yni 

HAND  IN  HAND 

THE  problems  of  Emigration  and  Immigi'a- 
tion  go  hand  in  hand.  The  Old  World  is 
concerned  primarily  with  the  first,  and 
the  New  World  with  the  second,  but  neither  can 
be  solved  independently.  Intelligent  and  sympa- 
thetic cooperation  is  necessary.  It  looks  as  if  the 
day  of  such  cooperation  between  Italy  and  America 
had  already  dawned.  An  example  of  the  new 
methods  being  employed  to  help  in  the  solution  of 
the  mutual  problem  is  seen  in  the  appointment  by 
the  Italian  government,  two  years  ago,  of  Professor 
Eacca,  to  study  conditions  in  Southern  Italy  and 
the  causes  of  emigration.  A  student  of  economics 
for  over  twenty  years,  and  an  assistant  professor  of 
political  economy  in  the  University  of  Rome  for 
several  years.  Professor  Racca  came  to  this  country 
highly  recommended  by  the  Italian  minister  of  for- 
eign affairs,  to  study  the  conditions  and  problems 
of  immigration  here.  During  his  stay  he  was  in- 
duced to  give  courses  of  lectures  in  New  York  and 
Boston,  speaking  to  the  Italian  citizens  of  both 

57 


58  THE  ITALIANS 

cities  in  their  native  language  on  the  history,  eco- 
nomics, geographical,  political  and  social  conditions 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  opportunities  and 
dangers  that  Italians  meet  here.  His  audiences 
increased  in  size  through  each  course  and  the  effect 
of  his  lectures  is  said  by  social  workers  and  others 
well  qualified  to  judge  to  have  been  exceedingly 
important. 

Eecent  developments  in  Italy  prove  that  she  is 
thoroughly  awake  to  the  interests  of  her  people. 
Realizing  the  need  of  more  industrial  enterprises  in 
the  south,  the  government  is  promoting  a  scheme 
for  the  construction  of  three  great  artificial  lakes  in 
the  Siia  range  of  mountains^  which  will  furnish  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  horse  power  for  indus- 
trial purposes  in  Calabria  and  Apulia.  In  Sardinia 
a  great  reservoir  is  already  under  construction 
which  will  noTonly  remove  a  menace  to  the  public 
health  by  draining  a  malarious  region  of  fifty  thou- 
sand acres  of  marshes,  but  will  provide  power  for 
electric  lighting  and  traction  for  the  Sardinian 
mines.  Italy's  chief  resource,  however,  will  always 
be  agriculture,  and  she  has  taken  the  initiative  in 
organizing  and  developing  this  great  occupation 
along  modern  lines.  The  International  Institute 
of  Agriculture  was  established  in  Rome  in  1905, 


HAND  IN  HAND  59 

upon  the  personal  suggestion  of  King  Victor  Em- 
manuel III,  who  provided  it  with  land  and  build- 
ings and  contributed  largely  to  its  financial  sup- 
port in  addition  to  giving  it  official  approval. 

Forty-nine  other  governments  have  joined  Italy 
in  this  movement,  representing  ninety-five  per  cent.   ' 
of  the  world's  area,  and  ninety-eight  per  cent,  of  | 
the  world's  population.     It  has  already  done  work  I 
of  incalculable  value  to  the  world  as  a  whole  "  by  f 
securing  international  cooperation  in  world  crop! 
reports,  in  disseminating  agricultural  intelligence,  I 
in  promoting  cooperative  agricultural  finance,  inl 
fostering    more    economical    distribution    of    the| 
world's. agricultural  production,  and  in  facilitating! 
better  understandings  between  the  peoples  of  the| 
earth."  * 

Speaking  to  the  members  of  the  American  Com- 
mission visiting  Italy,  in  1913,  His  Excellency, 
Hon.  Lugi  Luzzatti,  spoke  especially  of  the  "  popu- 
lar banks,"  the  independent  banks,  and  the  various 
systems  of  collective  earnings,  all  of  which,  he  de- 
clares, it  is  hoped  will  help  to  turn  the  tide  of  emi- 
gration without  making  necessary  the  passage  of 
obnoxious  prohibitive  laws.  If  this  same  commis- 
sion could  formulate  some  plan  whereby  the  Italian 
peasants  who  come  to  this  country,  ignorant  or 
mdcTern  farming  methods  and  machinery  but  mas- 


60  THE  ITALIANS 

ters  of  the  art  of  irrigation,  could  be  encouraged  to 
settle  in  some  of  our  arid  regions,  it  is  quite  possi- 
ble that  the  desert  would  soon  be  made  to  "  blossom 
as  the  rose."  This  is  only  one  way  in  which  the 
Italian  Immigrant  could  be  made  a  genuine  national 
asset. 

The  writer  knows  of  one  American  woman  who 
made  it  a  point  to  speak  a  kindly  word  to  the  young 
Italian  fruit-vendor  who  came  daily  to  her  door. 
The  acquaintance  developed  into  a  lasting  friend- 
ship, and  the  kindly  American  woman  has  stood  as 
a  mother  to  the  young  man  alone  in  a  stra,nge  land, 
and  has  his  gratitude  for  helping  him  to  start  in 
the  right  path.  Little  acts  of  friendly  interest  like 
this  are  possible  to  many  Americans,  but  how  few 
perform  them.  After  all,  the  Immigration  problem 
is  a  problem  of  good  citizenship,  and  so  is  a  personal 
problem  w^hich  each  should  help  to  solve. 

No  one  who  has  ever  crossed  the  Atlantic  from 
Naples  and  watched  the  steerage  passengers  as 
they  approach  America  can  fail  to  be  moved  by 
the  pathos  of  the  hopes  w^hich  shine  in  their  ex- 
pectant faces.  More  and  more  do  we  come  to  real- 
ize the  aptness  of  that  simile  which  has  described 
America  as  "the  Melting  Pot"  of  the  nations. 
"Were  ever  words  fuller  of  real  prophecy  than  those 


HAND  IN  HAND 


61 


of  Israel  Zangwill — "  The  real  American  has  not 
yet  arrived.  He  is  only  in  the  crucible.  He  will 
be  the  fusion  of  the  races,  the  coming  superman. 
.  .  .  Yes,  East  and  West  and  North  and  South, 
the  palm  and  the  pine,  the  crescent  and  the  cross — 
how  the  great  Alchemist  melts  and  fuses  them  with 
his  purging  flame !  Here  shall  they  all  unite  to 
build  the  Republic  of  Man  and  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  What  is  the  glory  of  Rome  and  Jerusalem 
where  all  nations  and  races  come  to  worship  and 
look  back,  compared  with  the  glory  of  America, 
where  all  races  and  nations  come  to  labor  and  look 
forward ! " 

No  thoughtful  citizen  of  the  United  States  who 
studies  the  Italian  immigrant  sympathetically  can 
deny  that  he  possesses  qualities  which  by  the  fusion 
of  the  races  in  the  great  melting-pot  of  modern  his- 
tory will  enrich  the  endowment  and  inheritance  of 
the  coming  American. 


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